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Common Sense Media says

Users say

Educator and Parent of a 6 and 8 year oldWritten byLezaLunaFebruary 16, 2013

AGE

18

QUALITY

Seriously?

Hmmm i am reading these reviews and i almost giggled at the parents who are saying that halo teaches important lífe skills. If your child begs for a game that involves killing in the first person and beating some one to death and u cant say no, dont justify it by trying to find role models and lífe lessons in it, just buy it and realize that its probably not the best thing for them but they will probably survive. I have an 8 year old who played this at his friend's house and it bothers me a lot how desensitized both kids and parents are to the violence in these games. The kid asks, the parents buy. Now my kid wants halo too... Dream on, boy. I can't see a single "lífe lesson" here or "hand-eye coordination" practice that he couldn't get eles where without murdering something.

Shouldn't be "M" should be "T"

When they say "hand-to-hand combat kills appear more dramatic. This version of Halo ups the ante in terms of violence as players can now watch Master Chief violently beating his opponents to death" I think they were exagerating. I watched my son play through the game and it was not that violent. The hand-to-hand combat wasn't brutal like other games. I think this game should be rated Teen as should all of the Halo games.

Halo 4 is ON for kids 12 and up

This is a spectacular game. I am a mother of a 12 year old, 14 year old, and a 16 year old. They all enjoy this game very much and play it with my husband. Before any of my kids knew about Halo, I was worried about getting it for them because a lot of people had said that it was an "M" game. When I heard my 12 year old was playing it at his friend's house, I wasn't pleased. But then my son showed me gameplay of the title, Halo: Reach, and he told me the plot of the campaign. I reconsidered buying him the game because the gameplay wasn't very violent, and there was no gore, only mild blood. I bought him the game and he was very happy, and he played it with his brothers and my husband a lot.
I come to this site often during Christmas, when I'm thinking about what games I'm going to buy for my kids. When I saw this game was coming out, I decided to buy it for them so that they could have an "early present." So I came to look at CSM, it said Not For Kids. This made me very confused, as the past titles had been marked for 16 year olds, so I decided to go and look at the review. It included several misleading remarks in the review, like saying assassinations were a new feature in Halo 4. These existed in Halo: Reach as well, and I didn't find that it bothered me very much, as it was similar to the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. I decided to take a chance and buy it anyway for my kids, and they were so excited. When the week was over, all three of them played the game together (a rare occurrence) through the whole story. I watched them have fun and even took a couple of pictures of them using teamwork to overcome the different combat missions and heard them "distracting enemies" and "boosting each other up" to previously unreachable places.
I think CSM is rarely wrong, but on this title, I'd have to disagree with myself. It's just as violent as the previous titles, which all deserved a "T" rating. I think what families should look out for is violence (you can turn the blood off and even go into 3rd person if you desire), mild language, and positive role models. This game is spectacular and I think any kid that is a fan of video games older than 12 should get this game. It teaches teamwork, reflexes, and hand-eye coordination.

Better than the other games

Something that I have come to love about the "Halo" seriese is that the profanity has seemed to decrease throughout the series. For example, Halo 1(alot of profanity) Halo2(Not to much) Halo 3(barely any) Halo: Reach(Mabye one or two words, and Halo 4(This game, has none). This to me is by far the best Halo game I have ever played, and is better than any other FPS(First Person Shooter) out there today. There is no profanity or gore in this game and the only violence is blue blood from the alians(There is red blood if you shoot your own team mates, but the game will penalize you if you choose to attack your own team). I give this game a 9 out of 10 (because of minor fake blood).

Parent of a 13, 13, and 16 year oldWritten byA. NguyenFebruary 15, 2013

AGE

13

QUALITY

Bought this as a present...

I purchased this game as a Christmas present for my younger son, who is thirteen years old. He enjoys video games, mostly as a social exercise (he loves to chat with a buddy as they play FIFA or Madden together, and I have never bought him a shooter before. I did some research with my husband, who was dissenting the idea, and after a week of some research in our spare time, we both came out with entirely different perspectives. My husband was against the game, he said that the ESRB rated things a certain way for a reason, and if they said the game should be reserved for ages 17+, then that's how it should be. My husband was also worried our son might become spoiled, and said that the amount of gifts he receives should be moderated. Meanwhile, I had done a bit more research. To me, psychologist, it was worrying at first that the first-person-shooter gameplay style would instill ideas of glorified killing in my child. With this as a mindset, I dove deeper into the world of Halo. As it turns out, in the story mode, the main enemy are these glowing, partially floating aliens, who, when killed, flake into golden pieces and disappear into the air. I then watched a little bit of gameplay I found on Youtube. Suddenly, the blood and guts images of gore that had been painted in my head by soccer moms and overprotective parents seemed ridiculous. Admittedly, some of the firearms used in the game (that don't glow or shoot light pellets) do look realistic, but no worse than anything seen in daily city news. The map building feature included in the game intrigued me. The amount of freedom that it gives the player to create, in HD and 3D was fascinating. This could actually rationalize a shooting game for most parents wondering whether or not to buy Halo for their child. But all in all, Halo 4 is no worse violence-wise than the latest Star Trek remake, or any sci fi PG-13 movie. But back to my son. He had been anticipating its arrival in stores for a month or two, and had wanted it since it came out. After the research and revelations mentioned above, I convinced my husband to buy this for our son for Christmas. Now, he plays this during his free time on weekends, sometimes in split screen cooperative mode with his older brother, sometimes with his buddies, online or in person. Even his twin sister plays the multiplayer once in a while. I once caught her and her friends having a tournament in the basement, late at night during one of her sleepovers. In the end, I believe that as long as my son isn't playing those ultra violent, ultra realistic shooters like Call of Duty, or playing video games every day, I have done a swell job with my media parenting.

AWESOME!!

this game is not AT ALL as bad as commonsense says it is. It is no worse than the rest of the halo series. I would say its good for kids ages 11 and up because there is some blood not to bad most blood is blue or green

To be Honest

This game is one of my most favourite, But then again COMMON SENSE MEDIA, This game is okay for kids, I can hardly see Blood and swearing than the previous ones... Yes, it's a first person "shooter"... It's one of the best Role-Playing games too, I let my 9 year old play this game and he absolutely love it than the VIOLENT CALL OF DUTY... I recomended this Game...

Future parent and long time gamer approves Halo 4

As a 23 year old male, I'm an active gamer that plans to have kids in the future. I've completed Halo 4 by myself on the hardest difficulty (Legendary) and played online a bit. The game has a fantastic, surprising story, thanks to the new developer, 343 Industries. The game is linear and story based, so it's more like a movie versus GTA, where players can potentially choose to deviate from the story and go into strip clubs.
Halo 4, in the best case scenario of positive parenting, can encourage hand-eye coordination, motor skill development, team work, communication skills and perseverance/anger management (on harder difficulties).
If kids play online, they should probably be 15+ if they use voice chat. Everyone else should turn voice off, which I think is possible in the settings. There is blatant profanity, racism, sexism and homophobic remarks from anonymous players online, or at least the potential for such things. Kids should be trained to expect such behavior and ignore these people and leave the particular match if they are really rude. Also, it's possible to mute specific players mid-game and send reports on their behavior.
Cortana appears to be nude, but I'd compare her to Mystique from X-Men. It's a blue, skin-tight suit that doesn't show any anatomical details. But the female form is there for sure. In certain parts, she comes up in 3d hologram form and the player can rotate the image of her. I'd image this might cause giggles in young kids, but not much more.
The game can desensitize players to becoming skilled at getting head shots, or instant kills. These shooting games, if analyzed critically, always make me ask why are these soldiers are going to war and why we're killing these hundreds of troops. It's important to talk about death, what it means and why we might have to kill, in the case of war and protecting our families. Like what happens when we die? It might be a hard conversation to have, but no one thinks twice about how the bodies are piling up and what it ultimately means. Thinking can make you question why you are killing all these people/creatures in games.
Some enemies (The Covenant) in the game are technologically advanced, but religiously insane in their black and white views of the universe. They always seek to gain entrance to heaven by killing everyone in the universe through use of various weapons. It's never a good thing to be so black and white, but perhaps an analysis of fundamentalist religion can be made here.
The forerunner element of the game highlights mankind's flaws, like our agression and manifest destiny for conquest of other countries and the universe itself. Forerunners are the original protectors of the universe and they point out how mankind might lead to the downfall of everything if they're left to their own devices. Parents can draw parallels to the Cuban Missile Crisis and possible self-extinction events. Are we as a species capable of surviving in the future or do we need guidance from a higher authority?
Depending on your view of the military, the Master Chief can be a positive role model only in the sense that he is a tireless military protector of mankind, or of his country/nation (in this case, Earth).
I think important themes of losing your humanity at a cost are prevalent - in the way that Chief and Cortana (the player's assistant, an AI woman) question which one of them is really the machine. In the same way that a military soldier must dehumanize himself and his enemy in order to kill, so too must the Chief look forwards in fairly simplistic ways. Chief (John 117) was engineered in a special science program to be stronger than other humans, but the cost being that he is antisocial and can't relate to other humans. He talks to his AI, Cortana, almost exclusively, to preserve his mind.

Great game!

if your son likes first personn shooters but you are not wanting to buy it for him because you tjink it will affect his behavior on other chilldre?
well this game is perfect becaus the violence in this game is extreamlly mild aand there is absoulutly no bad language i know this because i have played through the game before allowing my son to play, so i recomend this game more than other shooters out there for example COD (call of duty) is really bad for kids under 15 because it really effects them but don,t woory about this game because it made no side effects on my son so i recomend it for children 10 and up

Parent of a 6, 9, and 12 year oldWritten byMayaHaydon100November 12, 2012

AGE

12

QUALITY

LEARNING

Team building, fun game. ON for 12 and up

I know that a lot of families would immediately be fooled by Common Sense Media saying "Not For Kids." I usually think that Common Sense Media has it down. But here they kind of screwed up.
I've bought my 12 year old son (my oldest) Halo: Reach last year (the previous game), when he was 11, and I thought it was a great game for kids his age to enjoy and even older kids to enjoy. I always check on Common Sense Media for reviews and appropriateness checks for these types of games that I get my son. When I saw Halo 4 was rated "Not For Kids" I said to him that I couldn't get it for him because CSM said otherwise. He was sad, of course, since Halo is his favorite game. But then I asked him to show me some other people playing the game and when he showed me the game, I thought it looked exactly the same as the other Halo games. He got annoyed at me for saying that :) But to ME it looked the same. So I decided to get it for him even though my most trustworthy source said not to. And I don't regret it. He and my husband played it for a couple of hours and my husband was hooked (which showed how good of a game it was). I watched them play it together for a little while and it was a little bit violent like the previous games, but I still don't think CSM was right on this game. Do your kids a favor parents! Buy your kids this game. It looks fun, and I don't even like video games. It teaches team building and maybe even a little bit of reflexes too.
I give this game 5 stars, fair for learning, positive role models (Master Chief), watch out for a little bit of violence, and it's a FPS, so parents out there who don't like FPS-es look out for that. I think this game is ON for 12 year olds and up.

I think I can be the mediator here.Not for kids my

ok so I made this account just for Halo 4 and Halo 4 is an OVERWHELMING SUCCESS.The great thing about CSM is that the users are not harsh like Youtube or Facebook.The "dramatic beating animations" have been in Halo Reach 2 years ago get your facts straight.The biggest human violence you see is some CG cutscene where some civilians get stabbed(without blood spray),if you detach a turret and REPEATEDLY shoot someone in multiplayer then yes you will see a big pile of blood.However the game is very fast paced so unless you are in a remote spot you will run away before getting sniped.The multiplayer is exciting and you don't die so fast like in Call Of Duty(gore) which frustrates you.Halo has vehicles.Halo has a new engine.The most minor problems are that the effects in the game ENVIRONMENT ONLY are lacking.For kids the game is a little hard but if you play with a friend on easy or normal you will have a good time.Teens that are pro play on legendary difficulty to play longer and see the protagonist face!Multiplayer requires gold account which is kind of annoying unless you have lots of money.Virtually no sex or language in this game.Halo sold 220 million on one console alone,if it was on PC and PS3 it would make 660 million,more than the 500 million Black Ops 2 made.But too bad it could have it least been on PC too.So go buy it!The game plays out like a PG-13 movie.Or if darker then TV-14 but if a parent watches then it won't look that bad to them.As for education,well there is sometimes military jargon or high school vocab you can explain to your kid.

Halo 4 for undecided parents

This is a great game for my children. It teaches them many important life skills. This is also a great game for adults, we all love to play this game with our children. Master Chief is a great role model, he teaches children that the army helps save the world. My children look up to him as a hero even though they know he is fake. If you are an undecided parent then you should get this game. The best part is that the blood is optional, but the blood isn't that bad because it is very colorful. Halo 4 is a game that should be rated T for teens, not M for mature. There aren't many swear words compared to COD. So far, we haven't heard any swear words.

Not Bad

This game doesnt have any bad stuff at all. just a little violence and alien blood. There is a little red blood when you shoot your teammates but why would you do that. You can definitely let your kids play this.

A great shooter for Kids, not too violent at all

I am a very big fan of the Halo series. Not because of all the shooting, or cool guns, but because of the story (it has spawned a franchise of books too) There are many other games that don't involve Halo 4's character Master Chief. In almost every Halo game there is VERY little blood and gore. I always miss it. The story of H4 is great, you awaken from your 4 year slumber in your torn apart ship Forward Unto Dawn. Your AI companion Cortana (she is basically a blue very attractive figure if a woman, she is "naked" BUT DON'T GET ME WRONG, it's not detailed, just like Mystique from Xmen) is going rampant. You crash in a uncharted planet Requiem, meet a new enemy Didact. It is a very inspiring and great sci Fi shooter, voted for best graphics, and the story will even make you cry if you're a fan. (Take not there are "Assassinations" in Halo 4, when you sneak up at the back of someone, you can instantly kill them using this and your character either stabs the opponent or punches it, and still no blood in this one)

Suprisingly safe for kids 11+

DON'T LISTEN TO COMMON SENSE MEDIA!!!!!! Common sense media is a lying website saying halo 4 is "intensely violent" and "not for kids" please dont listen to them. I should know. im an after- school teacher at
chalker elem. and my son begged me for halo 4. i looked at csm's review and i told him no. he begged still, so i looked at another review. THIS REVIEW HAD TOTALLY DIFFERENT INFO!!! so i looked at a gamestop review and i found that the csm review was totally different than the other two, so if you're kids are begging you for halo 4, dont listen to csm. i bought the game, and my 13 year- old son loves it! his grades didn't decrease, and i watched him playing and it looked like a decent game with a positive role model ('master chief' my son says is the main character) blood is obviously fake, (green or blue) and violence is minimal. this is a great game to buy your 11 year old+.

Halo 4 review +answers to some people's questions

Halo 4 is about master chief who is trying to save an A.I. or cpu.There is violence but to all the people out there wondering why this game isnt T for teen instead of M for mature here's why:WHENEVER YOU KILL SOMETHING IN A VIDEO GAME ITS AUTOMATICLY M (mature).Overall there is zero swearing ok for kids 13 and under :D

Please read.

First the review made by commonsense was wrong. Yes you kill a lot. But blood is not nearly as bad as they say. Very little and soon it will dissapear along with the body's. Yes there are assassinations (the thing they called beating to death) But it does not like they say. First they make it sound like all you do punch some guy in the face with blood squirting out like call of duty with a camera following it showing all of it. Its not. Camera just zooms out and shows you quickly knifing him (Looks like you just punched him in the neck) quickly then he falls over dead with no blood. Yes there are some ways that you can assassinate that you snap his neck but all it is is you grabbing his head and twisting it in like 3 seconds. (search YouTube for assassination videos.) And this game is actually better then halo reach. (less cussing less violent assassinations.) Yes they do promote online use because it is there biggest money making part of the game. Yes they cuss a lot. Just turn of voice chat. (no other type of talking if you do that) And only 1 review saying it is not for kids. (a 16 year old anti violence chick) Yes guns that shoot bullets. But does it make a difference if you kill someone with a gun that shoots plasma or bullets? Oh yes assassinations where used in halo reach. And they are only used some times. Yes you can punch someone to death with melee but all it is is seeing your person swing his gun at another person and there shields dissapear. Then another hit will kill them and they fall over dead with no blood or freakish killing. Halo is the best First person shooter to get a kid. No cussing, or gore, not much blood, And other ones have more graphic melee kills with blood pouring out and massive murder.

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